Paul Newport

Yes, get it rebuilt by a decent wheel builder. It took two rebuilds on mine to sort things out, but I've had no problems on the wheel since. The range is dropping quite dramatically now on my BH, it's done 10,000km but will struggle to do more than 15 miles on my hilly commute route. Academic now though really as I'm changing jobs and will be driving to work, so the BH will have a leisurely semi retirement.

I saw a really nice KTM the other day, with a 46V battery and a new Panasonic rear hub, with a proper regen mode as well (which could be really handy as I do loads of hills). Not sure of the model number, but has anyone seen, reviewed or had a go on one of these beasts?

What range are you getting?

I will tonight

Er, no....

Oh, and a note on riding style, build etc. 6'2, 14 stone 3, 95% of journey on smooth flat roads or cycle paths. Occasional small bumps or potholes, nothing massive. Max speed on the flat around 30km/h, 45 down big hills. Riding style, careful and steady, no kerb jumping for instance.In fact I cycle REALLY carefully.

OK a bit of history to my Neo issue, and an attempt to move forward. The original wheel started to snap spokes on a regular basis. After many in shop replacements it went back to BH for a full rebuild and the BH importer lent me a crank based BH bike for the duration. It took BH around 3 months to fix it, as they insisted on fixing it rather than replacing it. I had no broken spokes at all on the BH crank based bike, which was nice, but less powerful than the hub based NEO, and also didn't have disk brakes. which I do like on the NEO. The NEO came back. Snap snap snap for a while, then OK, then it developed a horrid bearing squeak. Wheel back to BH for a bearing replacement, with a brand new wheel as an interim measure. New wheel, snap snap,snap,snap,snap,snap,snap,snap eventually snapping spokes every week. Full rebuild by dealer rather than BH with much better spokes.............all OK for a couple of months, then snap on Friday. So I'll discuss another rebuild with the dealer, asking about double butted spokes, and maybe go ahead with that. If that isn't a goer or it happens and they break again, time to get a crank based solution, possibly with hub gears.

I'm going to reply to the points on the more relevant thread, which is this one http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/bh-emotion-serious-problems.15973/

Yes, snapping at the spoke head, and yes, I guess we should keep to the other thread.

Crank it is then. Hub or derailleur gears?

14 stone 3 here plus large pannier full of work clothes and bike charger.

I'm massively gifted then! But only on this bike.

I'll check tomorrow when I go to the shop. By the way, what crank based KTM bikes are there?

It's brand specific. The Neo Cross is renowned for this problem. My current wheel had a complete rebuild with much better spokes than those supplied by BH, they lasted longer, two months rather than one, but now four have gone.

I'm just doing a normal road commute, twenty miles a day, five days a week, nothing more than that. No off roading. Will pop in to the dealer on Tuesday. As I am now car-less getting the bike in will be a challenge.

So are you saying that other hub based bikes aren't spoke breakers ? I must admit to liking the idea of having a rear wheel that I can actually fix a puncture on myself, so thinking about crank based systems.

I've had that done twice and a new wheel once. The problems are never ending. A the end of the day I need a reliable bike that gets me home from work in time to pick up my children; anything that doesn't do this is useless. I've got to the point where I think, how many times does this have to happen before I ditch it ? Having to charge at work in order to get back home again is also a pain, so it's not just the spokes that are making me think I want something else.

Not going near a BH bike ever again :-)

That's well worth knowing, thanks.

At the spoke head, next to the hub, every time for me.

The experiences in this thread sound terribly familiar. I've had multiple rebuilds, a replacement wheel, and absolutely no end of broken spokes, with them going at least ten times, usually three or four spokes going at once. I must say my local dealer has been excellent and very understanding, but now I've just had enough of my Neo Cross. The wheel felt a bit wobbly on the way home and I've just checked it and another four spokes have gone. Utterly hacked off. I think a combination of an over powerful hub motor and poor quality wheels lie at the bottom of this. I've had 5000 miles out of my Neo Cross so it's paid for itself but it's time to move on rather than having to pop in to my dealer ever month or two. I never want to ride a hub based bike again - are there any decent and reliable crank based bikes out there that can easily do a very hilly 30 mile trip ?

I'd rather not go with a hub based bike due to problems I've had with spokes breaking and also the difficulty of changing tyres on a hub based bike (for me anyway).

How hilly is the ride and also, how loud and portable is the charger ?

The Neo is a completely different beast to the City though. It's got a large and powerful hub motor as opposed to the crank based motor in the 700. When I mean steep I mean really steep; the elevation change over the trip is around 800 feet including the notorious Constitution Hill in Bristol. I'm 14 stone 3. If I forget to charge it overnight it will do the 10 miles back into work just, as long as you are on the lowest power setting (ECO) which is pretty tough on my knackered knee (which is why I ride an electric bike in the first place). If I could get a bike that did 45 miles that was reliable I'd snap it up.

I can JUST do a 20 mile round trip on a Neo Cross Emotion with the original battery with I think was 8AH. My journey is extremely hilly. So the upgraded battery should just about do 24 miles. Bear in mind the charger for the battery is extremely noisy and if you are charging at work you'd better have understanding colleagues. Also as the battery is integrated into the frame it's probably of a lower capacity and more expensive to replace than more standard battery installs. Personally I can't recommend the Neo Cross as although it's a lovely and powerful bike to ride I've had no end of reliability problems (spokes, spokes and spokes !)